Municipal, Superior Court Judges to Discuss Merger
A committee of Superior Court and Municipal Court judges has been created to iron out problems related to a proposed merger of the two court systems, court officials announced Monday.
The panel will analyze issues raised in a report--completed in April--by a Superior Court committee chaired by former Presiding Judge Gary Klausner. It identified unification issues but offered no conclusions or recommendations.
“This committee will pick up where the Klausner report left off,” said Superior Court Presiding Judge Victor E. Chavez.
The new committee will go beyond studying issues, he said, to offer possible solutions to the unification proposal.
In June 1998, voters passed Proposition 220, the measure that allows judges in the state’s 58 counties to decide whether to unify their systems. Under the plan, Municipal judges would be elevated to the Superior Court, which would have jurisdiction over all court trials.
On a vote of 167-3 in June, judges in the county’s 24 Municipal Courts approved merging trial court operations. But Superior Court jurists voted 167-66 against it. It was the second time the proposal failed to pass.
A majority of judges from both court systems must approve the idea before a unified court system can be put in place.
Most of the state’s counties have voted to unify, but Los Angeles and Kern counties have not.
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